Routine dental X-rays are not backed by evidence

You don't understand the power of the ADA/flouride lobby.

Even just 20 years ago it was routine to have mercury (toxic heavy metal) placed in your mouth for fillings, evidence said the compounds were stable and no one would fund anything that rocks the boat in the US. They did that for children, but they didn't call it mercury, they called it silver fillings (50% by weight mercury).

Normally flouride has very limited uses prior to government mandates, and was so common that it was largely considered a waste by-product not worth selling.

I've yet to find an evidence based study or information on why government require flouride ingestion in any population center above 30,000 when studies have shown its just as effective topically. A study out of african really put the nail in the coffin on this one.

Side effects include lethargy, neurological damage, cognitive decline, hypertension, acne, seizures, and gastrointestinal issues.

It also damages your kids brains more than an adult brain (seemingly lowering IQ permanently), can't be filtered out except by specialized filters that cost a lot (and rapidly become less effective over time).

If they get too much which is very simple indeed, this can happen since its in everything (even bottled water and sodas, GRAS and no label needed under a certain concentration that's well above the toxic limits of new studies).

Nursery Purified bottled Water for infants is a primary source of business.

https://www.readyrefresh.com/medias/sys_master/images/images...

Makes you wonder what's really going on, and why they have to drug broad swaths of the population under the guise that it helps fight dental decay (through ingestion), when most of those studies have been debunked outside the US.

When cities don't have the funding, they magically get the funding for it. When local municipalities don't keep the levels up, they go after them heavy handed, and they disappear from public view.

https://ntp.niehs.nih.gov/whatwestudy/assessments/noncancer/...

1) Just yesterday I went to a an acclaimed dental school (UNC) for low cost dental care. They not only gave me a panoramic x ray but also a full set of bite-wing x rays. I read this and I want to break the world apart this morning.

2) When I was a child I kep needing root canals. It turned out our dentist was making these all up and was later found passed out from laughing gas in his office.

NB No criticism of the dentist that did it - took two dentists and an assistant nearly 5 hours and they have an impressive amount of kit...

I suspect that it's also a question of market forces. A dentist that charged much more for an annual check would simply lose that business as there are plenty of dentists here. And quite likely they would lose any follow up work as well.

The profit margin on treatment is much higher but even that seems cheaper than what some of my US friends say they pay (or their insurance pays). Here's the price list for my dentist. In Norwegian but Google Translate does a good job:

http://www.drammen-tannlegesenter.no/om-oss-priser/priser

They do some cosmetic work as well, I imagine that the profit margins are higher for that.

I have two crowns, both created by an automated process of 3D photography and CNC machine in the clinic (Cerec). The most recent one went like this: I made an appointment to see my dentist at about 8:30 one morning complaining of toothache, she discovered that an old amalgam filling had cracked and taken part of the tooth with it and that the only practical repair was a crown. She then apologised profusely that she didn't have time to do it there and then but could I come back at 13:00 that afternoon? I said yes and by 13:30 the crown had been manufactured, fitted, ground down to an exact fit and I was leaving. The crown was a bit over 5 kNOK altogether, about 500 USD, for half an hour's work. The price has gone up a little since.

None of the work I have done, including the annual check-up, is done by a dental assistant, poorly paid or otherwise. I think that this might be because of the high cost of employing anyone in Norway.